Surveillance cameras have become ever more prevalent in society for people looking for enhanced security. Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) has been available for many years but suffers from the requirement for it to be manually monitored if the images are to be used real time, otherwise it simply acts as a recordal system.
With the advent of the internet and Internet protocol (IP) enabled cameras it has become possible for people to control and access images from cameras acting as Surveillance cameras over the Internet. Although such systems benefit from accessibility anywhere in the world, they require manual intervention to access and monitor the images generated. Further, people are generally required to monitor their own cameras and do not have knowledge of or easy access to images from other people's cameras.
The present invention aims to provide an improved surveillance system and method. The term surveillance in this application covers any observation or watching from a distance for whatever purposes and is not restricted to surveillance for security or safety purposes.